France: Changes coming next week

NASCAR notebook

Posted: Friday, January 16, 2004

By Don CobleMorris News Service

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Brian France admitted the changes in the point system for this season on the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series circuit will be "dramatic" but necessary to enhance stock car racing's position in the entertainment world.

The third-generation chairman of NASCAR continued to lobby for the changes that will be announced next week. The changes are supposed to break up the 36-race season into a 26-race stretch that only qualifies a group of drivers to run for the championship during the final 10 races.

Only three drivers - Michael Waltrip, Jimmy Spencer and Ricky Craven - have supported the plan that will replace a point system that's been used since 1975.

"We're committed to doing something very shortly," France said. "I have said all along that if we do something, we're going to do something dramatic because we have a good system. If we can make a good system great, that takes a dramatic move. We'll look at it, and we'll do it and we'll announce it shortly."

France admitted much of his organization's attention went to creating a better show for television, especially when NBC and TNT work together during the fall against the NFL on the other major networks.

Matt Kenseth took the lead in the point standings after the fourth race and he held onto it all the way to the championship. For all practical purposes, the championship was decided with three months remaining in the season. Kenseth didn't win a pole position all year and he won but one race, but he stockpiled points with 31 top-15 finishes in 36 starts.

More testing at Daytona

The second of two three-day test sessions at the Daytona International Speedway ended Thursday with Ken Schrader posting the quickest lap of the day at 187.793 mph and Ricky Rudd leaving with the fastest lap (188.470 mph) of either session.

"We're definitely pleased with that," Rudd said. "It's been a long time since I've been at the top of the speed chart at Daytona. It's been many years."

The top three overall speeds from single-car runs came from Rudd's Ford, a Chevrolet by John Andretti (188.198 mph) and Schrader's Dodge.

The final two hours of Thursday's session featured most of the cars running in big packs of traffic. In that session, Johnny Sauter had the fastest lap at 189.713 mph.

The series will return next month for the Budweiser Shootout on Feb. 7 and the Daytona 500 on Feb. 15.

The only mishap of this week's session came early Thursday when Jimmie Johnson lost control of his Chevrolet and crashed in third turn. He wasn't hurt.

IROC returns

As expected, the International Race of Champions will return this season at the Daytona International Speedway and three new venues.

The four-race series dropped the Talladega Superspeedway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Chicagoland Speedway and added the Texas Motor Speedway, Richmond International Raceway and Atlanta Motor Speedway.